tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Oct 13 18:14:31 1995

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Odd sentence in phrase book



> > >I have noticed that a lot of people like to use the words qatlh, nuq etc. 
> >when saying things like 'I know what you mean' or 'I remember how it 
> >works'. 
> >   Is this really allowed? It seems to me that the inclusion of a 
> 
> I can tell you immediately and firmly.  We don't know.
> 
...
> We have been using them this way, though, but not out of blind aping of
> English usage.  There is a method to our madness.  We consider it a normal
> sentence-as-object construction, with perhaps a slightly idiomatic usage.

I thought this might be it. And I suppose as long as everyone 
understands, and it doesn't contravene any direct rules, it's okay, 
right? After all, Klingon is a living language... I was just wondering if 
there had been any official decision about it.

On to the next question. I don't have my TKD right here with me, but I 
was reading it last night and I'm pretty sure I remember the sentence 'I 
wasn't there' translated as {pa'Daq jIHpu'be'}. And isn't the be' in the 
wrong spot? It says that it follows the concept being negated in the 
'Verbs' section; I would have thought the concept being negated here is 
'I am' rather than 'perfective'. What's going on here?

    C /\ T  
   F /()\ C  ...CM is ATMA! 
  C /____\    ...http://ariel.its.unimelb.edu.au/~cthulhu/say-it.html
    GANTA



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